Joshua 11-12: Seek Integrity
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Survey
Today we have the opportunity to read about a promise review. God has promised territory to a people who were enslaved. God promises a place in which they might live, work, play, celebrate and worship. God promises to remain with them, to guide them and to protect them. They, in turn, promise to reverence this God only, to follow the Lord’s commandments only, and to teach their children and their children’s children to do the same. We might take this opportunity to pause and to survey our own promises, the ones we make willingly, the ones we perhaps make grudgingly, the ones we keep and the ones we forget. How and why do we make promises? When and why do we keep them or disregard them? Do we ever pause to remember what promises we have made and why we made them?
We do not only receive the gifts of our talents and souls, we also are given the gift of time and space each morning when we rise. What do we chose to do with these presents from our creator? When we examine our lives – as we do frequently during our Lenten or Advent journeys – what new territories do we find that we now occupy? Which harassing and recalcitrant tyrants have we conquered through God’s grace and hand? What have we taken in that is new to us? How has this newness affected the other parts of our lives? What can we expect from ourselves? Do we see others differently than we saw them before as a result of our newness?
It is always good to evaluate and assess because from this kind of exercise can come a deeper and better understanding of who we are – why we are – where we are going – and who we are meant to be. When we take a scan of our actions we have to be honest and sometimes this can be brutal; but it is the only method of integrating what we say with what we do. The act of self-scrutiny, when done in a healthy and open manner, is the only real method of determining if and how we have kept the promises we have made. It is also the only real way to discovering if we are making the proper kinds of promises. This kind of examination is the only real path to integration. It is the only true response to the God who creates us lovingly and tends to us unceasingly.
What are the promises we have already made? What promises are we about to enter into? What promises do we dream about?
What promises have we kept? What promises do we intend to keep? What promises do we hope to take into the future?
Only an honest survey will tell us what we will need to know. Only an honesty survey will tell us if and how we value integrity.
For an interesting perspective of the story of Rahab and Joshua, click on the image of the Jericho street above, or visit: http://www.lizcurtishiggs.com/bad-girls-of-the-bible-rahab/
Adapted from a Favorite written on February 25, 2010.
Images from: https://www.wikiart.org/en/james-tissot/the-seven-trumpets-of-jericho and http://www.lizcurtishiggs.com/bad-girls-of-the-bible-rahab/
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